advances in higher educational resource

8/20/2019 Advances in Higher Educational Resource

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International Journal of Computer Science & Engineering Survey (IJCSES) Vol.6, No.3, June 2015

DOI:10.5121/ijcses.2015.6303 25

ADVANCES IN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE

SHARING AND CLOUD SERVICES FOR KSA

Bariah Aljebreen 1, Prof. Ajantha Dahanayake 2 and Liyakathunisa Syed 3

1Researcher, Department of Software Engineering, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh,

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)2Professor, Department of Software Engineering, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh,

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)3 Assistant Professor, Department of Software Engineering, Prince Sultan University,

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)

A BSTRACT

Cloud represents an important change in the way information technology is used. Cloud makes it possible

to access work anywhere anytime and to share it with anyone [1]. It is changing the way people

communicate, work and learn [2]. In this changing environment, it is important to think about the

opportunities and risks of using the cloud in the education field, and the lessons we can learn from the

previous uses of this technology in the education field. In order to gain the benefits of the cloud to be usedin educational system in KSA, a comprehensive study on scientific literatures in this paper. This paper also

presents the significant information such as the findings, the case studies, related frameworks and

supporting also the tools associated to the migration of organizational resources to cloud.

KEYWORDS

Cloud Computing, Educational cloud, KSA, Resource Sharing.

1.

INTRODUCTION

Cloud Computing is evolving as a key technology for sharing resources. It can be defined as ashift from local computing offerings to external cloud provider [3]. The benefits of cloud aredocumented and defined by Badger et al. [3]. The document presents the major classes of cloudtechnology and provides guidelines for organizations on how to define the related advantages andrisks of migration to cloud computing. Moreover, the document introduces different technologiesand structures to adapt to the various requirements of organizations. The authors demonstratedthat the features to consider for cloud are the following:

1. The Deployment Models represent the various cloud deployment methods that are private orhosted by the cloud customer and shared among a limited number of trusted partners, and

which use a third party service for public accessibility.2. Service Models describe the types of services provided by clouds, which are: entree tosoftware such as email or office automation tools, called Software as a Service (SaaS ); toolkitto let the customer organization build and operate their own software, known as Platform as aService (PaaS ); network access to traditional computing resources such as processing powerand storage, called Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

3. Economic Considerations describe the method of paying for cloud services. Users arecharged while using a service. This method provides elasticity that avoids unnecessary costsfrom over-provisioning.


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4. Operational Characteristics are concerned with the appropriateness of the applications to behosted on cloud. Applications that can be segmented into small independent parts are moreappropriate to migrate to cloud.

5. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) list the responsibilities of the customer organization aswell as the cloud service provider’s responsibilities before migrating to cloud.

6. Security is concerned with the traditional computer and network security issues. These issuesinclude data confidentiality, data integrity, and system availability.

To integrate multiple dimensions and to produce different analysis to understanding relationshipsamong the findings of the literature framework of cloud migration, most of the previous works inthis field are studied and summarized [4]. The findings include an authentic method to segmentthe application and then migrate it to the cloud. After that, according to the elasticity offered bythe cloud provider, the suitable providers are chosen.

From an organizations’ prospective, there are factors that need to be considered in making thedecision of migrating to cloud computing. Avram [5] analysed costs, return on investment,performances, security, and integration with the existing IT infrastructure and existing software.The study considered the company size and business specialization to identify the proper type of

cloud computing solution. The results show that the business processes must be evaluated toidentify the risks and advantages of cloud migration. The author suggested that small and mid-sized processes can merge to cloud easily as they have less complex processes. In addition, theoutcome of the cloud migration has two features; utility and guarantee. The organizationsplanning for cloud migration must define their economic objectives related to four elements;namely, financial, customer, internal and learning-development, and then recognize the way cloudservices can tolerate these aims [5]. The strengths and drawbacks of cloud computing forbusinesses and academics are proposed by Marston et al. [6]. They outline some of the basicissues facing governmental agencies intending to migrate to cloud. They discuss several points ofconcern, which are cloud service pricing mechanism; ideal risk transfer and SLA contract;partnership 3rd party relations; the optimal set of guidelines to perform the migration to a privateor public cloud; finding the best solutions of cloud; formulating Information Systems (IS) policyacross the practice of multiple cloud providers; the ideal set of guidelines to decide the types of

applications to migrate to cloud; the IT auditing strategies, security issues and internationalregulations, and assessing the risk involved in migrating to cloud computing [6]. The cloudsolution proposed by Jun et al. [7] can provide an effective decision support system. It candecrease the capital costs and provide viable services. Performance analysis can be done to provethe effectiveness of cloud migration. Further Sodhi et al. [8] proposes that the Private Cloud issuperior to the Public Cloud for most Quality of Attributes (QAs).

2. CLOUD MIGRATION

Cloud can be defined as rent entree to fully functioning applications, software development, anddeployment settings, with an infrastructure that provides network- data storage and dataprocessing [3]. However, by performing unbroken management practices, security updates andresponse issues are improved. There are several migration types to distribute applications [9]. An

application may be segmented physically into different components or logically according tofunctionality. Another point of view is whether the applications migrate partially or completely.

Therefore, there are four migration types [9].

Type 1: partial migration by replacing one or more components of the application to the cloud. Itis the minimum risk migration type.Type 2: migrate a component of the application functionality to the cloud such as a group ofcomponents from one application layer.


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Type3: migrate the whole application to the cloud based on the virtualization of cloud.Type 4: migrate the application associated with the data layer and business logic layer.

Park et al. [10] uses a longitudinal design to get data from undergraduate students at twouniversities in Korea in the context of IT switching to Google Apps settings. The results showtwo important ideas. The first is a strong positive attitude towards cloud migration, as well as amoderate attitude that overcome the negative effect of expected costs. The second one is thathaving existing software is difficult to be imitated and replaced by alternatives such as cloudapplications. Finally, personal productivity software such as Microsoft Office is widely availableand can provide help to users and organizations as compared to free cloud services such asGoogle Applications [10]. The benefits of using Cloud, as well as the disadvantages ofimplementing it are illustrated by Sultan [11]. A case study is made in the University ofWestminster to get the results. First, the advantages include decrease in cost of buying andinstalling hardware and software, usage of power, and carbon footprint. Another advantage isdelivering a diversity of computing services. Disadvantages of using cloud are security,reliability, and portability [11]. Khajeh-Hosseini et al. [12] made a case study that illustrates theadvantages and challenges associated with oil and gas industry companies’ migration to cloud.The case study examines an in-house data center migration to Amazon EC2. It also made the costinstability in terms of cloud-usage and data transfer costs, with a focus on systems infrastructurecosts only. The findings concluded that cloud is a cheaper solution compared to purchasing,hosting, and maintaining IT systems infrastructure in-house. Moreover, cloud reduces support andmaintenance problems. Concerning the drawbacks of cloud migration, they concluded that thereis reduction in customer satisfaction because of the decreased overall service quality due tomoving of control to third parties who are the cloud service providers. Concerning the employees,there is a declined job satisfaction due to changes in the nature of work [12]. A step-by-stepprocess to support commercial medical application migration to public cloud is proposed byBeserra.et.al [13]. The authors created template profiles illustrating the organization; they aimedat legacy application and the applicant cloud providers. Then these pieces of information passthrough a cross-analysis to identify and resolve critical limitations that may delay migration to thecloud. The best practices of service migration design, as well as how these patterns should beapplied during the migration of a service-based application or multiples thereof are presented by

Fehling.et.al. [14]. The case study was conducted for a web-application migration from AmazonWeb Services to the T-Systems cloud offering Dynamic Services for Infrastructure (DSI). Thefindings illustrated that service-based applications have specific architectural characteristics thatmake them perfect to cloud migrations. They defined migration patterns [14]. Zhou et al. [15]discussed existing problems of public education resource. They propose an application of a cloudservices model according to a case study made in China concerning the country’s publiceducation. Finally, they developed the Public Education Resource Cloud Services (PERCS). Toidentify PERCS, difficulties of resource sharing must be studied first. Then, the new technologiesthat can be implemented are studied. Finally, the mission of public education is altered from theresources practise to providing services in the public educational development.

Ming-ming et al. [16] made a case study to examine the distance-learning in China. According tothe existing problems, the authors proposed the architecture of advantages provided by cloud. The

architecture includes platform services, software services, teaching information resources,improvement on using the resources, and reduction in the system building costs. Cloud is not onlyuseful for IT solutions, but can also be used to support our daily life affairs. Li et.al. [17]presented a data integration approach based on three environmental Sensors, Model Networks,and Australian Water Availability Project database. The integration approach is made to estimateground water balance and average water availability. The Commonwealth Scientific andIndustrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) sensor cloud infrastructure has been used widely toprocess big data integration and the machine learning based decision support system. Another useof cloud is a new Decision Support Systems (DSS) solution design proposed by Miah.et.al. [18].


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The solution is an intelligent technique that decision makers of the Australian Road Safety canobtain on-demand to monitor records regarding the behavior of temporary license holding drivers.The structures of the trusted cloud framework guarantee the integrity and confidentiality of theout-sourced computations through clouding [18]. Environmental decision support systems(EDSS) module was developed by Sun [19]. It is a traditional client-server application hosted byGoogle Drive, which is a cloud service provider. EDSS provides basic visual analytics structuresthat increase the combined decision-making experience while radically reducing the cost ofWatershed Management [19]. Sultan [20] made another study on healthcare environment. Heproposed that using cloud in health facilities provides openings for cost-savings and inventivesolutions. A small case study titled “proof of concept” was implemented in a London hospital. Inorder to classify the numerous applications of cloud technologies in educational institutions, Tanet.al. [21] used a case study. The findings are the common success factors. However, this studyspans for years and the results are not yet concluded.

3. CLOUD FRAMEWORKS AND SUPPORTING TOOLS

This section presents the various cloud frameworks and supporting tools as discussed in scientificliterature.

A Decision Support System (DSS) is proposed by Song [9] for application in migration to thecloud. The system provides user-friendly interface. It enables the users to enter the system, andthen the system displays the answer of which cloud service providers can host their businessbased on the entered requirements. Xiu [22] created a DSS that contains a database, user interfaceand data handler. The database is called Cloud Provider Knowledge Base, and it is hosted by twocloud providers, Google and Windows Azure. Each provider contains a set of cloud offerings thathas various performance features and configurations. The data handler contains two mainfunctions, offerings matcher and costs calculator. The first function is applied by comparingbetween user's requirements and the data in the database. The second function is achieved bycalculating the pricing formula with certain values. A user is free to choose his favourite datacenter location and usage pattern with a certain rate for a certain period. The results of the users’search are presented easily after he enters his requirements ranked according to suitability [22].

A list of security and privacy features are presented by Kalloniatisa et al. [23] to address andhandle the threats of cloud areas, such as Isolation, Availability, and Transparency. Manyorganizations are adopting cloud. Consequently, many researches are focusing on selecting thebest cloud service provider according to certain conditions. To evaluate the benefits of purchasingcompared to renting storage from a cloud a model is presented by Brisken et al. [24] forcalculating a reasonable approximation of the possible outcomes. The investigation is made onSerial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) disk drives. The main contribution here is theunderstanding of the real cost of migrating assets to cloud services to guide stakeholders ontaking rational decisions [24].

The service selection technique has been applied by Zhang [25] by using Structured QueryLanguage (SQL) and regular expressions to minimize the negative side and strengthen restrains ofcloud migration. This way, an improved cloud selection comparison Web system is created and it

is illustrated in Figure 7. The services used for the selection are storage, andprice_storage_requests, provider, compute, network, regional_price. Regional price include othercomponents [25].


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Figure 1: Serviced and relationships in cloud implementation [25]

Previous studies failed to provide a systematic method that enables selection of a suitable cloudservice provider based on requirements as well as security and privacy requirements. Mouratidisa

et al. [26] proposed a framework, according to the organisational context, identified goals, actors,tasks, resources, and plans. The framework can analyse security and privacy constraints, goals,and threats related to cloud migration [26]. Andrikopoulos et al. [4] proposed a three-tieredarchitecture to select an appropriate cloud service provider. They investigate both cost calculationand offerings’ matching. They suggest that the architecture may include end users, a knowledgebase of cloud service providers and their offerings, and a back-end that provides selection andcost calculation logic. The results of the analysis are ranked. According to the authors, more studyis needed to cover more concerns such as elasticity strategy, Quality of Service (QoS)characteristics, performance forecast, and security concerns [4]. A conceptual framework ofservice-oriented decision support systems for cloud migration is presented by Demirkan et al.[27]. Organizations intending to migrate to cloud must be careful with the service level, quality ofservice, the cost and the duration of delivered services. The proposed framework focuses onreduction in unit service costs due to scale, scope, and speed. Scale indicates reduction due to

increase in operational size. Scope indicates reduction due to increase in the number of developedand provided services. Speed defines the reduction due to the increase in number of services putthrough the supply/demand chain [27].

To evaluate the adoption of cloud, a Cloud Adoption Toolkit is discussed by Khajeh-Hosseini etal. [28]. Using the toolkit, the purpose of the organizations is matched with the appropriatetechniques. The Cloud Adoption Toolkit includes analysis for Energy Consumption, TechnologySuitability, Stakeholder Impact, Responsibility Modeling, and Cost Modeling. The findingsconcluded that it is difficult to generalize the results on every organization [28]. Moreover, twotools for modeling cloud migration as IaaS are presented by Khajeh-Hosseini et al. [29]. The firsttool is for IT architects. They define their applications data, and infrastructure requirements, aswell as their resource usage forms. Then, the tool is used to compare the cost of different cloudproviders. The second tool is a spreadsheet that outlines the outcome and challenges of using IaaSclouds from an enterprise standpoint. This second tool is considered a starting point for riskassessment. These tools need more investigation for longitudinal data. Juan-Verdejo [30]presented a framework of the decision-making process automation of cloud migration based onthe advantages and disadvantages of migration related to enterprise policies, data sensibility,performance, cost savings from migration, dynamic performance, bottlenecks, data flows betweenapplication components, and the spread and variability of users. The results showed thatmigration can decrease SLA (Service Level-Agreement). However, it can handle issues such ashigher reliability due to the higher level of replication, peaks in workload, existence of multiple


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fault domains, and the deployment of the application on multiple clouds [30]. Cloud Geniusframework addresses cloud challenges and automates the decision-making process for Web servermigration to the cloud. It used Analytic Hierarchy Process to perform automation of the selectionof cloud provider based on QoS parameters [31]. A mathematical entity called Stochastic PointCloud (SPC) is capable of handling the computational complexity when there is lack of data orwhen there is disagreement of include/exclude a section of data from past observation. SPCprovides an opportunity to visually understand the cloud decision process. In addition, it increasesthe trustworthiness and transparency of a decision making process. This study used the normal-distribution-driven SPC and took place in Abu Dhabi Emirate of United Arab Emirates [32].

Companies must identify their fitting migration to the Cloud Architecture Model. They mustanalyze several features of their own business, as well as pre-existing IT resources. A generalSuitability Index model is developed to consider various incorporeal impacts of cloud. With theappropriateness index modified to the companies’ needs, they can easily get a clue to what kindof migration to adopt. The developed model considered a large number of factors [33]. Oraclecorporation developed Cloud Candidate Selection Tool (CCST), which is an evaluationframework to help IT organizations define which applications, services, components, etc. areappropriate for placement to a cloud, either private or public. The analysis production from the

CCST provides a visual symbol of the current architectural evaluated components with respect todeployment to a cloud environment. Numerous examples of patterns that are commonly realisedwhen using the tool are presented [34]. Mithani et al. [35] made a model for dynamic resourceallocation in a real time manner with reduction of cost. Using this model, organizations can moveto a public cloud environment with the most fit for the business service workloads withoutredesigning the applications or changing their business logic. The model assesses the public cloudproviders based on features and limitations. A visual presentation of the Systems, Applicationsand Products (SAP) in Data Processing applications enables easy communication with a tool toestimate the cost of cloud hosting. One of the largest and famous organizations has moved itsservices to the cloud. SAP AG is a huge software corporation that moved its services to the cloud.After this important step, companies that are using SAP AG applications and products started tothink about the reduction of cost, if they moved to cloud. A decision support tool to helpcompanies to enlist the costs involved using the existing IT systems and accordingly the cost of

the cloud hosting, will be calculated. The tool offers the expenses involved for both storagelocations to the user and shows a clear influence of moving an application [36].

In the next section, off the shelf educational cloud applications like Amazon, Microsoft, Google,and IBM Cloud Services are presented.

4. OFF THE SHELF EDUCATIONAL CLOUD APPLICATIONS

Cloud can provide suitable and sufficient resources to be used with ease. In this section, theexisting Educational Cloud applications are discussed.

4.1 Amazon Education Cloud

Amazon Education Cloud provides Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS provides scalable,accessible, reliable, and flexible solutions for schools and universities. Furthermore, AWS can beused as (IaaS). This way, AWS provides basic computing competence of virtual machines toprovide high performance, reliable networking as well as redundant storage. Examples ofUniversities that have moved to AWS are University of San Francisco, University of California atBerkeley, and Harvard Medical School [37].


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4.2 Microsoft Education Cloud

Microsoft Education Cloud Computing (MECC) is a giant model of resources that enables thestudents and researcher to migrate to the cloud. It enables the researchers to get rid of tasks ofinfrastructure administration. In addition, other tasks are easy to do over its Web-based services.

All MECC services offer great financial flexibility for educational institutions with low costs ofdevelopment, scalability, operation and migration. MECC offer a service called MicrosoftLive@edu, which includes many services such as On-Line Document Sharing, Enterprise ClassTools, Cloud Based E-Mail, Alumni Communication, and On-Line Document Storage [1].Microsoft’s cloud as (IaaS) is called Windows Azure. Windows Azure is an operating system thatallows the higher educational institutions to run operating system applications and store data byMicrosoft server [1]. Actually, Microsoft is offering a wide range of applications for education tofulfill various educational tasks such as Communication and Collaboration, Web Portals, DeviceManagement, Educational Analytics (for Schools only), Financial management, InstitutionalEffectiveness(for Higher Education only), relationship management, and server and cloudplatform for IT efficiency. Such variations of services enable full or partial immigration to cloudfor educational institutions [38].

4.3 Google Applications for Educational Cloud

Google App Education (GAE) is a cloud based Web application operated on the GoogleInfrastructure. It enables educational users of different levels such as faculty, researchers orstudents to use Web applications with no cost. The users can share ideas more quickly, do taskseffectively, have competent communication, and share tools. Google Apps Education includes acollection of Web-based messaging tools such as Google Talk, Google Mail, Google Sites,Google Video, and Google Calendar, as well as Google Docs Package for free [1].

3.5.4 IBM Cloud Services to Education

IBM SmartCloud for Education introduces cloud services to distribute computer lab contents,

programs, and services to the educational entities without the need for advanced IT proficiency. Itoffers self-service reservation such as student achievement, graduation rates, scholarship funding,and demands for IT resources for research that can be accessed anytime from anywhere [39].

5. EDUCATIONAL CLOUD

In this area, there is an attitude to improve the educational systems and services in universitiesand academic institutes. Consequently, there is a huge competition among the universities on thequality of education they provide. However, the educational institutions face a stressing challengeof funding [2]. Cloud Education can be a solution to improve educational services. For thisreason, Cenka et al. [40] made a study that consists of several phases that include recognizingproblems and needs, defining the services, design for using Cloud in Education, application,testing, and assessment.

The findings conclude:

Services needed are e-Library, e-Course, e-Academic, e-Learning, and e-Lab. The data to manage include library collections, learning materials, scientific publications,

student IDs, professor’s profile, and education profile. Infrastructure services needed are storage.


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Benefits of cloud in education are:

All the educational related knowledge is accessed via devices such as computers, tabletcomputers, and mobile phones.

Using this method of education reduces the time and cost.

Accessibility is gained by using several types of devices. Knowledge sharing is encouraged.

The only point of concern is to study the security aspect of such migration. Educationalorganizations that have limited budgets and a number of challenges may consider cloud migrationfor their IT tasks. This method of using cloud is called ‟Education and Learning as a Service”(ELaaS). ELaaS is a hybrid method that can be implemented including cloud or non-cloud basedsolutions [41]. Cloud Cube Model (CCM ) is a cloud computing formation model. CCM is basedon four principles represented by a cube where each opposite face is measuring the same criteria.Hence, two opposite faces are left blank. Consequently, CCM is unbalanced. To reserve thesymmetry of the cube, Complete Cloud Formations (C3F ) is made. C3F is a new formation modelbased on CCM. It has three main principles that reflect two values; each representing all of thesides of the cube. The three principles are Physical Location and Management, Technology

Ownership, and Architectural Mindset. For the physical location and management, it has threevalues namely Internal/In-sourced, Internal/Out-sourced and External/Out-sourced. Internal/In-sourced means that the application is within the organization's physical boundary under thecontrol of the organization's own staff. Internal/Out-sourced means that the application is withinthe organization's physical boundary, but under the control of a 3rd-party. Finally, External/Out-sourced means that the application is out of the organization’s physical boundary and it iscontrolled by a third party. For the technology ownership, it has two values namely Proprietary orOpen. Proprietary means that the cloud service provider is controlling and administering theapplication. Open means that the cloud providers are using open technologies. This means thatthe organization is not constrained to selected parties. Architectural Mindset can be parameterisedor De-parameterised. Parameterised means (IaaS) and (PaaS). De-parameterised means (SaaS).Each class is then mapped into the appropriate position in the C3F, creating ELaaS Quadrant.Then, the IT missions are categorized into two criteria; mission criticality and sensitivity. In

addition, each one has the value of Low or High. Finally, each category of the IT missions ischarted into the suitable position in the C3F. The resulting quadrant is called ELaaS Quadrant[41].

Figure 2: ELaaS Quadrant [41]

Business Intelligence (BI) applications provided by the cloud providers can enhance the businessand educational functions of the educational entities. SaaS business intelligence enablesdeploying programs faster and analysing the data more swiftly [42]. Akhmetov et al. [42]proposed a quantitative evaluation model of impact on knowledge of the students, as well as theimpact of teachers by using the fuzzy logic. The proposed model helps to take decisions about the


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quality of the offered subject. Accordingly, the university manager can make decisions onrefining the quality of the different services offered.

6. EDUCATIONAL CLOUDS IN KSA

Most of the organizations across the world are constantly developing and deploying IT-basedsolutions to improve their services and increase net outcome. Moreover, such IT solutions helpvarious sponsors with better communication and decision support. IT solutions adopt moderninformation technologies (IT) such as the internet and wireless communication technologies. Toget the maximum benefits from the IT solutions, they must be appropriate to the tasks of thebusiness processes [15]. In the education field, students are always developing and improvingtheir skills. Consequently, IT infrastructure must coop these swift advancements. Using the latesttechnology of cloud as educational infrastructure enables the educational entities to manage thebroad educational processes. Cloud architecture implementation offers reduction in expenses,elasticity, scalability, and accessibility [15].

In this section, we first explain the current situation with respect to KSA’s higher educationalsystem and the position of educational cloud within this context. After that, the common success

factors of Educational Cloud implementations are highlighted according to the literature reviewand the related Saudi researches. Finally, the gaps that need more investigation are covered.

6.1 KSA Higher Educational System

This section discusses the general information about the ministry of higher education as well asthe ministry responsibilities.

6.1.1 Ministry of Higher Education of KSA

Saudi Arabia’s education system has gone through an amazing revolution. In 1932, the Kingdomwas established and education was mostly offered to wealthy families living in the major cities

[43]. In the early 1970s, Saudi Arabia began focusing on higher education. Later on in 1975, theMinistry of Higher Education was established. By 2015, Saudi Arabia’s education systemembraces 25 public and 27 private universities. The system has become free to all citizens andincludes education, books, and health services. However, the focus on studying of Islam remainsthe core [43]. About 1 million students are enrolled at Saudi universities and colleges. Moreover,the Saudi government offers specialized graduate and postgraduate degrees abroad to thousandsof Saudi students [43]. In 2015, Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, the Minister of Education has approveda number of educational projects at a cost of SR319 million ($85 million) across the Kingdom.The projects include more than 20 schools and educational complexes and construction of sportshalls [43].

6.1.2 The Responsibilities of the Ministry of Higher Education of KSA

•

It affords support and services for the kingdom's universities and colleges.• It is responsible for the coordination, supervision, and follow-up of post-secondary

programs, as well as linking with the national development programs in different fields.

• It also delivers the necessary technical and administrative manpower to the various socialsectors.

•

It manages scholarships of Saudi students studying abroad.

• It coordinates international inter-university relations [44].


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6.2 Educational Cloud in KSA Higher Educational System

There are almost no researches about Educational Cloud implementation in KSA and the Arabiancountries. In the following section, we will illustrate some researches that can pave the way forimplementing Educational Cloud in KSA. In 2009, to have a better understanding and to measure

students' perceptions towards the effectiveness of mobile learning in Saudi Arabia, aninvestigation of 186 undergraduate female students at King Saud University was done [45]. Itillustrates their attitude towards the use of mobile technology in education. The author defines away on how this technology can be used optimally to improve student performance. The resultsclearly indicate that offering mobile learning could improve acquiring of B.A and M.D. students,by improving their teaching and learning processes. The major advantage is that mobile learningcan take place anywhere and anytime. Moreover, using the mobile learning system improvescommunication among the students who are enrolled in the open, as well as the distance learning[45].

Alshumaimeri Y. et al. [46] conducted a case study to examine the current availability of ICTfacilities (Information Communications Technology) to teachers of English as a foreign language.The purpose of this study is to examine the current availability of ICT facilities to teachers of

English as a foreign language. A questionnaire is administered in order to ascertain thedifferences between teachers in their report of available ICT resources and their use of suchresources. The findings indicate that the most frequently utilized resources include the use of theinternet to review updates in teaching English. However, teachers report feeling as if they did nothave adequate experience in using the computer and did not feel the education directorateprovides adequate support, equipment, and learning opportunities for English language teachersin ICT. Factors found to have an impact on whether or not computers are being integrated intoclassroom instruction include the use of a home PC, access to computer labs in the school, andcomputer training. In conclusion, the study suggests that greater availability of new teachingtechnologies such as computer labs and training programs will better ensure the integration ofICT resources into the lesson plans of EFL teachers [46]. In 2011, a mobile learning frameworkwas created and validated by interviews using a qualitative method in Saudi Arabia [47].


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Figure 3: Suggested Mobile Learning framework 2011 [47]

Suggestions of the framework include:

i. Separation of functioning modules into two groups, which are mobile learning module andadministrative support service module.

ii. Introduction of educational blog and educational games module.

iii.

Use of distributed databases. [47].

In 2012, another study investigated the same subject matter that is to examine acceptance inMobile Learning (M-Learning), but this time to serve in the development of distance learning forhigher education [48]. The results from the statistical analysis show that the acceptance level ofstudents on m-Learning is high level. This study adds an examination of the factors thatpromoted the behavioral intention to use m-Learning. Although, more than half of the studentsare not used to m-Learning, they had a good attitude towards it. Therefore, the university


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administration should focus on the design of m-Learning systems. Good insight and universitypolicy are two major aspects that lead to success in m-Learning system [48].

Moreover, in 2011, a complete hierarchical framework that measures and categorizes all criteriaaffecting the developments and deployments of cost-effective M-Learning was presented. Theframework is easily used and it is illustrated below [49].

Figure 4: M-Learning System [49]

Furthermore, due to the hierarchical structure of the framework, Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP) technique is used to quantitatively approximate the success factors of the system. Theframework is illustrated below [Figure10].

Figure 5: Standard Hierarchical Framework [49]

The proposed success factors are:

1. A user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI).2. Using object-oriented methodologies for easy modifications.3. Quantitatively evaluate the success factors.


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4. Include enough help5. Demand little resources in terms of speed and memory.6. Be a new project or migrate with an existing one.7. Select the evaluation technique (AHP, FAHP, and FEA)8. Enter the number of criteria, suggested by the framework, to be measured9. Define all the sub criteria10. Perform calculation to estimate the global weight for each criterion11. All input and computed parameters are stored in a database for further processing any time

later [50].

7. RESULTS

Educational Cloud Computing is a promising technology that encourages learning with reducedcost. It is also accessible all the time from anywhere and is devoted to the idea of life-long-learning. Adopting Educational Cloud Computing technology needs to be studied in order todefine its value and its mechanism of implementation [41].

Current higher educational settings are traditional in nature and are often unable to face the

demand for rapid changes in technologies in an interactive learning environment [51]. The sameis true for e-learning which appears to have numerous limitations starting from the use of localsurroundings. In addition, infrastructure limitations often force institutions to avoid usingmultimedia contents in synchronized form due to the cost involved. Because of these and manyother limitations, institutions often eliminate the use of sophisticated educational platforms [51].

This paper aims to understand the benefits of implementing educational Cloud Computing inhigher education system especially in KSA. There is a need to create a framework that identifiesthe requirements which will justify the implementation and assisted migration of educationalCloud Computing for higher education institutions in KSA. In addition, when creating this type offramework the educational, cultural and economic related problems should be taken intoconsideration.

8. CONCLUSIONS

This paper presents a detail overview of cloud and its technologies, as well as the features thatneed to be considered for cloud deployment. An exhaustive literature survey on educational cloudis performed. A comprehensive literature survey on cloud migration is also provided in this paper.Various cloud framework and supporting tools for cloud are also discussed, and the off the shelfcloud application are also presented. Finally, the educational cloud in the Kingdom of SaudiArabia is discussed.

REFERENCES

[1] F. Alshwaier, A. Alshuwaier and A. Areshey, "Applications of cloud computing in education," in

IEEE 8 th International Conference on Computing and Networking Technology (ICCNT), Gueongju,2012, pp. 26-33.

[2] B. Hirsch and J. Ng, ,"Education beyond the Cloud: Anytime-anywhere learning in a smart campusenvironment," in IEEE International Conference Internet Technology and Secured Transactions(ICITST), Abu Dhabi, 2011, pp. 718-723.

[3] L. Badger, T. Grance, R. Patt-Corner and J. Voas, "Draft Cloud Computing Synopsis andRecommendations," In National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, SpecialPublication 800-146 2012.


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